My wife is going to try elk hunting for the first time this year with her bow. She has a cow tag and a bull tag. Her draw is a whisker under 26 inches. She is shooting Easton Axis 500s at 8.1 Gr/in. 100 gr heads. Her total arrow weight will be in the ballpark of 325 gr. Pretty light. She is pulling about 52 pounds. I have always been a fixed blade guy, especially for elk. The guy at our local shop is trying to get me to set her up with mechanicals. My first instinct is to set her up with a good sharp cut on contact 2 or 3 blade. Don't some mechanicals take a certain amount of energy to deploy blades? I'm just not sold on them, although I know some love them. What about stepping up to the Axis 400s and shooting a 125 gr. head? Arrow would be slower though. I just don't know what route to take for her. What do you all think? Thanks.

Slow and heavy is fine.. I always think about what my set up will look like when the day comes that I cannot pull 70 lbs any more, and I always lean toward a heavier arrow.. if I were you, go with the 400 spine and 125 grain (that should bump total arrow weight over 400 grns) and keep shots at 45 yrd or under.. Lots of good broadheads out there.. but I agree, stay with a good solid fixed blade cut on contact. Magnus, Slick Trick, Montec, etc.. Make sure the bow is tuned well and the should all fly good

Aspen ghost has excellent advice. I would step up the arrow weight significantly getting her into the mid 400's at a minimum and use a good low profile fixed blade head. Improve her FOC with a brass insert and use one of the 1" LPS offerings from RAD would be a great choice, Slick Trick standards would be another. My girls shoot the 500 FMJ in that configuration with a RAD madman LPS 100 and get awesome penetration out of bows drawing 35-45# on deer and bear, no elk love yet for them.

With that arrow weight, DL, and draw weight, I would highly recommend a quality COC fixed blade. If your local dealer I s trying to convince you to use mechanicals on elk with her set up, I’d find another dealer. That’s simply bad advice. If you can get her bow tuned with a heavier arrow and broadhead, so much the better. With her setup, she needs to keep her shots 30 and in, so trajectory isn’t a big issue. With her light setup, the heavier the better.

I personally have used the slick tricks for years and was leaning towards that maybe for her. After hearing what you guys have said so far I think I might get her the 400s in FMJ (for the weight) and have her shoot 125 grain heads. Or do I just stick with the Axis 400s? Can't be too much of a weight diff. between the two. I don't know off the top of my head. Make her shoot 30-35 yards and under. Thanks for the input guys.

Look for a long length to width ratio, so basically take a page from the traditional guys. And I would significantly bump up her total arrow weight. There are some lighter stiffer arrows out there that you could couple a heavy head with. Look at Cutthroat Broadheads, somewhat pricy, but bulletproof with good penetration characteristics and good warranty and fairly easy to sharpen!

400 grain arrow is plenty with a good sharp COC head...5/16 Zwickey Eskimo 4 blade is what i would set that rig up with. Have seen this exact combo work on 6 bulls from a gal shooting 51 pounds....we never let her shoot more than 30 yards and it kills them deader than a wedge

Yea, find another archery shop. IMO get a good coc head. I have killed several bulls using Magnus Stingers and Snuffer SS 100gn. With her set up if she hits an elk in the right place he is done. Elk are big tuff critters but hit them in both lungs or the heart and they won’t go far hit them in the butt or way back and you probably will never see him again. Good luck to the wife.

No need to ditch your shop just because he's wrong on this one subject. As a trad shooter who has watched a whole bunch of critters taken by trad shooters, its really no big secret as to how to penetrate well on big critters with a lower energy set-up. A sharp, strong, fixed blade head with a good angle of attack combined with a great flying arrow. I, and the trad guys I hunt with all expect to get two holes on anything we shoot and we are all starting with no more (probably less) energy when released. Weight helps with momentum so don't avoid it, but great arrow flight trumps it so don't go heavy if you can't get a great tune that way.

400 spine Axis and leave it 29" long or so. Longer shafts stabilize quicker and adds to the mass. Put about 150 to 175 grains up front and you should have enough weight. I'm a fan of Slick Tricks, but the Iron Will would likely be a premium choice.

Mechanicals would be a terrible choice. Energy equals force times distance. You want the lowest force possible to cut through the animal to maximize penetration distance. Half the force means twice the distance. Choose an extremely sharp 2 blade head or 2 blade with bleeder with a steel that will retain that sharp edge.

VPA makes a great 3-blade broadheads in a wide range of weights. I would also look hard at the Cutthroat broadheads. Single bevel 2-blade and extremely strong.

Shooting longbows, I am very selective in my choice of broad heads. I have killed a lot of elk with 425 grain arrows with 150 grain 3-blade Snuffers off of longbows in the 60# range over the years. I have actually had a number of complete pass-thrus with those setups on elk. Killed a moose with that same setup and sunk the arrow to the fletching thru ribs and stopped in the offside shoulder.

Your wife’s 52# compound will generate more velocity and energy than my bows with the same arrow setups.

The three blade heads put down a lot of blood and typically result in short blood trails, even if they don’t penetrate as far as a 2-blade they will penetrate enough!

A 2-blade will definitely out penetrate the 3- or 4- blade heads and single bevel heads will penetrate better thru heavy bones with more arrow weight, but the down side is typically less blood on the ground.

I do not understand the brass insert thing when field points are readily available in so many weights from 100 to over 300 grains. Broadhead design and functionality just gets better the heavier you go.

My suggestion would be to go up in spine to a 400. Then tune the arrow to a 150 or 175 grain point and use a 3-blade VPA. With sight pins and a little practice, she should have no issues shooting elk to 40 yards with that setup. Might even influence her to use that same heavier setup for everything...

Its all about shot placement for someone with that weight setup. Dont try to change her setup dramatically. Especially by converting to heavy 2 blade CoC 's. They may not fly well. Keep her comfortable and accurate. My wife killed this bull with 100gr Nitron head, 375 gr total arrow wt out of 56 lb bow. Complete pass through.

I'd also increase arrow weight and put a sharp COC like an Iron Will on. 325 is low. Energy used to open mech is negligable, it's all the other stuff I'd be more worried about. As to arrow weight, I would be worried about that for energy. Yes, she could get lucky and completely miss ribs. If she hits even ribs with that setup, penetration is going to be iffy.

I bought a 50 pound bow this year and increased my arrow weight by 65 grains to 486 grains compared to my 60 pound bows. I would up the arrow weight (400 spine) and tip it with something like a 125 grain Magnus 2 blade Stinger.

Magnus Buzzcut 4 blade It's the answer I got from Mike at Magnus, still use it for the wifes' set up; 48lb, 26in draw, .600 Axis (with 3gpi inserts) , 85gr Buzzcuts. If it's @32yds, she will pass on it, trust me.

As far as the mech head- I bring 92 ftlb KE to the table and I won't shoot 'em.

Having a lot of experience with one mechanical head in particular that uses what I believe is a lot less energy to open and penetrates very well with slower, less weight arrows is the Rocket steelhead 100. I have personally seen pass through's on whitetails with as low as 43 lbs with this head.. (Yes guys I know deer are not elk) This head has no vent to slow it down when going thru a animal, it's only 1 1/8 inches wide and and the blades are swept-back to help it slice through easier. It's one through head. So if your are going to use a mechanical head this is the one I would choose for a liter setup. Ed

Sorry for you Iron Will fans. Finally got to see and shoot some and I am not all that impressed. I will stick to my VPA's any day over them. I can buy 8 of the VPAs for the cost of 3 of them and my VPA's holdup just fine, like I said the .500 spine is fine if it is cut that short and shoot a 175 grain VPA out of it and it will do fine. Shawn

Shawn, I asked the question on the Iron will thread and it was like they were gut shot. Why would anyone pay almost three times as much for something that may not be a better broadhead. I just ordered 5 packs of Magnus Stingers this week!

But then you are choosing to go to a weaker broadhead design with a lighter, weaker ferrule and blades.

Also, the blade angle will be steeper and will not provide as much cutting surface because they are shorter.

I set my son’s 50# compound up a few years back to shoot a stiff arrow and send a big broadhead. I set him up with .350 spined arrows tuned with a 250 grain point weight. I think those arrows are over 600 grains. Then I set up some old Snuffers with steel inserts at 250 grains. They flew great out to 40. That setup blew through a cow elk, a mule deer buck, and several pigs with no problems.

52 lbs is plenty for elk, you need the arrow weight up, at least 450 but 500 would be better. A good two blade sharp coc head will do the job. As mentioned earlier, 325 is a disaster waiting to happen.